Book: Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.

S >> S. A. Reilly >> Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.




The learned ecclesiastical life flourished in monastic
communities, in which both monks and nuns lived. Hilda, a noble's
daughter, became the first nun in Northumbria and abbess of one of
its monasteries. There she taught justice, piety, chastity, peace,
and charity. Several monks taught there later became bishops.
Kings and princes often asked her advice. Many abbesses came to
run monastic communities; they were from royal families. Women,
especially from royal families, fled to monasteries to obtain
shelter from unwanted marriage or to avoid their husbands. Kings
and eorldormen retired to them.

Danish Vikings made several invasions in the 800s for which a
danegeld tax on land was assessed on everyone every ten to twenty
years. The amount was determined by the witan and was typically
2s. per hide of land. (A hide was probably the amount of land
which could support a family or household for a year or as much
land as could be tilled annually by a single plow.) It was stored
in a strong box under the King's bed. King Alfred the Great, who
had lived for awhile in Rome, unified the country to defeat the
invaders. He established fortifications called "burhs", usually on
hill tops or other strategic locations on the borders to control
the main road and river routes into his realm. The burhs were
seminal towns. They were typically walled enclosures with towers
and an outer ditch and mound, instead of the hedge or fence
enclosure of a tun. Inside were several wooden thatched huts and a
couple of churches, which were lit by earthen oil lamps. The
populace met at burh-gemots. The land area protected by each burh
became known as a "shire", which means a share of a larger whole.
The shire or local landowners were responsible for repairing the
burh fortifications. There were about thirty shires.

Alfred gathered together fighting men who were at his disposal,
which included eorldormen with their hearthbands (retinues of men
each of whom had chosen to swear to fight to the death for their
eorldorman, and some of whom were of high rank), the King's
thegns, shire thegns (local landholding farmers, who were required
to bring fighting equipment such as swords, helmets, chainmail,
and horses), and ordinary freemen, i.e. ceorls (who carried food,
dug fortifications, and sometimes fought). Since the King was
compelled to call out the whole population to arms, the
distinction between the king's thegns from other landholders
disappeared. Some great lords organized men under them, whom they
provisioned. These vassals took a personal oath to their lord "on
condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and fulfill
all that was agreed on when I became his man, and chose his will
as mine." Alfred had a small navy of longships with 60 oars to
fight the Viking longships.

Alfred divided his army into two parts so that one half of the men
were fighting while the other half was at home sowing and
harvesting for those fighting. Thus, any small-scale independent
farming was supplanted by the open-field system, cultivation of
common land, more large private estates headed by a lord, and a
more stratified society in which the king and important families
more powerful and the peasants more curtailed. The witan became
mere witnesses. Many free coerls of the older days became bonded.
The village community tended to become a large private estate
headed by a lord. But the lord does not have the power to encroach
upon the rights of common that exist within the community.

In 886, a treaty between Alfred and the Vikings divided the
country along the war front and made the wergeld of every free
farmer, whether English or Viking, 200s. Men of higher rank were
given a wergeld of 4 1/2 marks of pure gold. A mark was probably a
Viking denomination and a mark of gold was equal to nine marks of
silver in later times and probably in this time. The word "earl"
replaced the word "eorldormen" and the word "thegn" replaced the
word "aetheling" after the Danish settlement. The ironed pleats of
Viking clothing indicated a high status of the wearer. The Vikings
brought combs and the practice of regular hair-combing to England.

King Alfred gave land with jurisdictional powers within its
boundaries such as the following: "This is the bequest which King
Alfred make unequivocally to Shaftesbury, to the praise of God and
St. Mary and all the saints of God, for the benefit of my soul,
namely a hundred hides as they stand with their produce and their
men, and my daughter AEthelgifu to the convent along with the
inheritance, since she took the veil on account of bad health; and
the jurisdiction to the convent, which I myself possessed, namely
obstruction and attacks on a man's house and breach of protection.
And the estates which I have granted to the foundation are 40
hides at Donhead and Compton, 20 hides at Handley and Gussage 10
hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at Iwerve and 15 hides at Fontmell.

The witnesses of this are Edward my son and Archbishop AEthelred
and Bishop Ealhferth and Bishop AEthelhead and Earl Wulfhere and
Earl Eadwulf and Earl Cuthred and Abbot Tunberht and Milred my
thegn and AEthelwulf and Osric and Brihtulf and Cyma. If anyone
alters this, he shall have the curse of God and St. Mary and all
the saints of God forever to all eternity. Amen."

Sons usually succeeded their fathers on the same land as shown by
this lifetime lease: "Bishop Denewulf and the community at
Winchester lease to Alfred for his lifetime 40 hides of land at
Alresford, in accordance with the lease which Bishop Tunbriht had
granted to his parents and which had run out, on condition that he
renders every year at the autumnal equinox three pounds as rent,
and church dues, and the work connected with church dues; and when
the need arises, his men shall be ready both for harvesting and
hunting; and after his death the property shall pass undisputed to
St. Peter's.

These are the signatures of the councilors and of the members of
the community who gave their consent, namely ..."

Alfred invented a graduated candle with spaces indicating one hour
of burning, which could be used as a clock. He used a ventilated
cow's horn to put around the top of the candle to prevent its
blowing out, and then devised a wooden lantern with a horn window.
He described the world as like a yolk in the middle of an egg
whose shell moves around it. This agreed with the position of
Ptolemy Claudius of Alexandria, who showed the curvature of the
earth from north to south by observing that the Polar Star was
higher in the north and lower in the south. That it was curved
from east to west followed from the observation that two clocks
placed one west and one east would record a different time for the
same eclipse of the moon.

Alfred wrote poems on the worthiness of wisdom and knowledge in
preference to material pleasures, pride, and fame, in dealing with
life's sorrow and strife. His observations on human nature and his
proverbs include:

1. As one sows, so will he mow.
2. Every man's doom [judgment] returns to his door.
3. He who will not learn while young, will repent of it when old.
4. Weal [prosperity] without wisdom is worthless.
5. Though a man had 70 acres sown with red gold, and the gold grew
like grass, yet he is not a whit the worthier unless he gain
friends for himself.
6. Gold is but a stone unless a wise man has it.
7. It's hard to row against the sea flood; so it is against
misfortune.
8. He who toils in his youth to win wealth, so that he may enjoy
ease in his old age, has well bestowed his toil.
9. Many a man loses his soul through silver.
10. Wealth may pass away, but wisdom will remain, and no man may
perish who has it for his comrade.
11. Don't choose a wife for her beauty nor for wealth, but study
her disposition.
12. Many an apple is bright without and bitter within.
13. Don't believe the man of many words.
14. With a few words a wise man can compass much.
15. Make friends at market, and at church, with poor and with
rich.
16. Though one man wielded all the world, and all the joy that
dwells therein, he could not therewith keep his life.
17. Don't chide with a fool.
18. A fool's bolt is soon shot.
19. If you have a child, teach it men's manners while it is
little. If you let him have his own will, he will cause you much
sorrow when he comes of age.
20. He who spares the rod and lets a young child rule, shall rue
it when the child grows old.
21. Either drinking or not drinking is, with wisdom, good.
22. Be not so mad as to tell your friend all your thoughts.
23. Relatives often quarrel together.
24. The barkless dog bites ill.
25. Be wise of word and wary of speech, then all shall love you.
26. We may outride, but not outwit, the old man.
27. If you and your friend fall out, then your enemy will know
what your friend knew before.
28. Don't choose a deceitful man as a friend, for he will do you
harm.
29. The false one will betray you when you least expect it.
30. Don't choose a scornful false friend, for he will steal your
goods and deny the theft.
31. Take to yourself a steadfast man who is wise in word and deed;
he will prove a true friend in need.

To restore education and religion, Alfred disseminated the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicles; the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of
the English Nation; the "Consolidation of Philosophy" by Roman
philosopher Boethius, which related the use of adversity to
develop the soul, and described the goodness of God and how the
highest happiness comes from spiritual values and the soul, which
are eternal, rather than from material or earthly pursuits, which
are temporal; and Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, which he had
translated into English and was the fundamental book on the duty
of a bishop, which included a duty to teach laymen; and Orosius'
History of the World, which he had translated into English.
Alfred's advice to pastors was to live as they had been taught
from books and to teach this manner of life to others. To be
avoided was pride, the mind's deception of seeking glory in the
name of doing good works, and the corruption of high office. Bede
was England's first scholar, first theologian, and first
historian. He wrote poetry, theological books, homilies, and
textbooks on grammar, rhetoric [public speaking and debating],
arithmetic, and astronomy. He adhered to the doctrine that death
entered the world by the sin of Adam, the first man. He began the
practice of dating years from the birth of Christ and believed
that the earth was round. Over the earth was a fiery spherical
firmament. Above this were the waters of the heavens. Above this
were the upper heavens, which contained the angels and was
tempered with ice. He declared that comets portend downfalls of
kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat. This reflected the
church's view that a comet was a ball of fire flung from the right
hand of an angry God as a warning to mankind, usually for
disbelief. Storms were begun by the devil.

A famous poem, the oral legend of Beowulf, a hero who led his men
into adventures and performed great feats and fought monsters and
dragons, was put into writing with a Christian theme. In it,
loyalty to one's lord is a paramount virtue. Also available in
writing was the story of King Arthur's twelve victorious battles
against the pagan Saxons, authored by Nennius.

There were professional story tellers attached to great men.
Others wandered from court to court, receiving gifts for their
story telling. Men usually told oral legends of their own feats
and those of their ancestors after supper.

Alfred had monasteries rebuilt with learned and moral men heading
them. He built a nunnery which was headed by his daughter as
prioress. He built a strong wall with four gates around London,
which he had taken into his control. He appointed his son-in-law,
who was one of his eorldormen, to be alderman [older man] to
govern London and to be the shire's earl. A later king built a
palace in London, although Winchester was still the royal capital
town. When the king traveled, he and his retinue were fed by the
local people at their expense.

After Alfred's death, his daughter Aethelflared ruled the country
for seven years. She had more fortified burhs built and led
soldiers to victories.

Under the royalty were the nobles. An earl headed each shire as
representative of the King. The term "earl" came to denote an
office instead of a nobleman. He led the array of his shire to do
battle if the shire was attacked. He executed all royal commands.
An earl received grants of land and could claim hospitality and
maintenance for himself, his officers, and his servants. He
presided over the shire court. He received one-third of the fines
from the profits of justice and collected as well a third of the
revenues derived from tolls and duties levied in the boroughs of
his shire. The office tended to be hereditary. Royal
representatives called "reeves" started to assist them. The reeve
took security from every person for the maintenance of the public
peace. He also tracked cattle thieves, brought suspects to court,
gave judgments according to the doom books, and delivered
offenders to punishment.

Under the earls were the thegns. By service to the King, it was
possible for a coerl to rise to become a thegn and to be given
land by the King. Other thegns performed functions of magistrates.
A thegn was later identified as a person with five hides of land,
a kitchen, a church, a bell house, a judicial place at the burh-
gemot [a right of magistracy], and an appointment in the King's
hall. He was bound to to service in war by virtue of his
landholding instead of by his relationship to the king. Nobility
was now a territorial attribute, rather than one of birth. The
wergeld of a thegn was 1200s. when that of a ceorl or ordinary
freeman was 200s. The wergeld of an earl or bishop was four times
that of a thegn: 5800s. The wergeld of a king or archbishop was
six times that of a thegn: 7200s. The higher a man's wergeld, the
higher was his legal status in the scale of punishment, giving
credible evidence, and participation in legal proceedings. The
sokemen were freemen who had inherited their own land, chose their
own lord, and attended and were subject to their lord's court.
That is, their lord has soke [soc] jurisdiction over them. A ceorl
typically had a single hide of land. A smallholder rented land of
about 30 acres from a landlord, which he paid by doing work on the
lord's demesne [household or messuage] land, paying money rent, or
paying a food rent such as in eggs or chickens. Smallholders made
up about two fifths of the population. A cottager had one to five
acres of land and depended on others for his living. Among these
were shepherds, ploughmen, swineherds, and blacksmiths. They also
participated in the agricultural work, especially at harvest time.

It was possible for a thegn to become an earl, probably by the
possession of forty hides. He might even acquire enough land to
qualify him for the witan. Women could be present at the
witenagemot and shire-gemot [meeting of the people of the shire].
They could sue and be sued in the courts. They could independently
inherit, possess, and dispose of property. A wife's inheritance
was her own and under no control of her husband.

Marriage required the consent of the lady and her friends. The man
also had to arrange for the foster lean, that is, remuneration for
rearing and support of expected children. He also declared the
amount of money or land he would give the lady for her consent,
that is, the morgengift, and what he would bequeath her in case of
his death. It was given to her on the morning after the wedding
night. The family of the bride was paid a "mund" for transferring
the rightful protection they possessed over her to the family of
the husband. If the husband died and his kindred did not accept
the terms sanctioned by law, her kindred could repurchase the
rightful protection. If she remarried within a year of his death,
she had to forfeit the morgengift and his nearest kin received the
lands and possessions she had. The word for man was "waepnedmenn"
or weaponed person. A woman was "wifmenn" or wife person, with
"wif" being derived from the word for weaving.

Great men and monasteries had millers, smiths, carpenters,
architects, agriculturists, fishermen, weavers, embroiders, dyers,
and illuminators.

For entertainment, minstrels sang ballads about heroes or Bible
stories, harpers played, jesters joked, and tumblers threw and
caught balls and knives. There was gambling, dice games, and
chasing deer with hounds.

Fraternal guilds were established for mutual advantage and
protection. A guild imposed fines for any injury of one member by
another member. It assisted in paying any murder fine imposed on a
member. It avenged the murder of a member and abided by the
consequences. It buried its members and purchased masses for his
soul.

Mercantile guilds in seaports carried out commercial speculations
not possible by the capital of only one person.

There were some ale houses, probably part of certain dwellings.



- The Law -

Alfred issued a set of laws to cover the whole country, which were
drawn from the best laws of each region. There was no real
distinction between the concepts of law, morals, and religion.

The importance of telling the truth and keeping one's word are
expressed by this law: "1. At the first we teach that it is most
needful that every man warily keep his oath and his wed. If any
one be constrained to either of these wrongfully, either to
treason against his lord, or to any unlawful aid; then it is
juster to belie than to fulfil. But if he pledge himself to that
which is lawful to fulfil, and in that belie himself, let him
submissively deliver up his weapon and his goods to the keeping of
his friends, and be in prison forty days in a King's tun: let him
there suffer whatever the bishop may prescribe to him…" Let his
kinsmen feed him, if he has no food. If he escapes, let him be
held a fugitive and be excommunicate of the church.

The word of a bishop and of the king were incontrovertible without
an oath.

The Ten Commandments were written down as this law:

"The Lord spake these words to Moses, and thus said: I am the Lord
thy God. I led thee out of the land of the Egyptians, and of their
bondage.

1. Love thou not other strange gods above me.

2. Utter thou not my name idly, for thou shalt not be guiltless
towards me if thou utter my name idly.

3. Remember that thou hallow the rest day. Work for yourselves six
days, and on the seventh rest. For in six days, Christ wrought the
heavens and the earth, the seas, and all creatures that are in
them, and rested on the seventh day: and therefore the Lord
hallowed it.

4. Honor thy father and thy mother whom the Lord hath given thee,
that thou mayst be the longer living on earth.

5. Slay thou not.

6. Commit thou not adultery.

7. Steal thou not.

8. Say thou not false witness.

9. Covet thou not thy neighbor's goods unjustly.

10. Make thou not to thyself golden or silver gods."

If any one fights in the king's hall, or draws his weapon, and
he be taken; be it in the king's doom, either death, or life, as
he may be willing to grant him. If he escape, and be taken
again, let him pay for himself according to his wergeld, and
make bot for the offence, as well wer as wite, according as he
may have wrought.

If a man fights before a king's ealdorman in the gemot, let him
make bot with wer and wite as it may be right; and before this
120s. to the ealdorman as wite. If he disturbs the folkmote by
drawing his weapon, 120s. to the ealdorman as wite. If any of
this happens before a king's ealdorman's junior, or a king's
priest, 30s. as wite.

If any one fights in a ceorlish man's dwelling, let him make bot
of 6s.to the ceorl. If he draws his weapon but doesn't fight,
let it be half of that. If, however, either of these happens to
a man with a wergeld of 600s., let it increase threefold of the
ceorlish bot; and if to a man with a wergeld of 1200s., let it
increase twofold of the bot of the man with a wergeld of 600s.
Breach of the king's dwelling [breaking and entering] shall be
120s.; an archbishop's, 90s.; any other bishop's, and an
ealdorman's, 60s.;. a 1200s. wergeld man's, 30s.; a 600s.
wergeld man's, 15s.; and a ceorl's 5s.

If any one plot against the king's life, of himself, or by
harbouring of exiles, or of his men; let him be liable with his
life and in all that he has; or let him prove himself according
to his lord's wer.

If any one with a band or gang of men slays an unoffending man,
let him who acknowledges the death-blow pay wer and wite. If the
slain man had a wergeld of 200s, let every one who was of the
gang pay 30s. as gang-bot. If he had a wergeld of 600s., let
every one pay 60s. as gang-bot. If he had a wergeld of 1200s.,
let every one pay 120s. If a gang does this, and afterwards
denies it on oath, let them all be accused, and let them then
all pay the wer in common; and all, one wite, such as shall
belong to the wer.

If any one lends his weapon to another so he may kill some one
with it, they may join together if they will in the wer. If they
will not join together, let him who lent the weapon pay of the
wer a third part, and of the wite a third part.

With his lord a man may fight free of liability for homicide, if
any one attack the lord: thus may the lord fight for his man.
Likewise, a man may fight with his born kinsman, if a man attack
him wrongfully, except against his lord. And a man may fight
free of liability for homicide, if he finds another with his
lawful wife, within closed doors, or under one covering, or with
his lawfully-born daughter, or with his lawfully-born sister, or
with his mother, who was given to his father as his lawful wife.
If a man knows his foe is sitting at his home, he may not fight
with him before he demands justice of him. If he has such power
that he can beset his foe, and besiege him within, let him keep
him within for seven days, and not attack him if he will remains
within. And, then, after seven days, if he surrenders, and gives
up his weapons, let him be kept safe for thirty days, and let
notice of him be given to his kinsmen and his friends. But if he
does not have sufficient power to besiege him within, let him
ride to the ealdorman, and beg aid of him. If he will not aid
him, let him ride to the king before he fights. In like manner
also, if a man come upon his foe, and he did not know
beforehand that he was staying at his home; if he is willing to
give up his weapons, let him be kept for thirty days, and let
notice of him be given to his friends; if he will not give up
his weapons, then he may attack him. If he is willing to
surrender, and to give up his weapons, and any one after that
attack him, let him pay as well wer as wound, as he may do, and
wite, and let him have forfeited his compensation to his kin.
Every church shall have this peace: if a fugitive flee to one
for sanctuary, no one may drag him out for seven days. If he is
willing to give up his weapons to his foes, let him stay thirty
days, and then let notice of him be given to his kinsmen. If any
man confess in church any offences which had not been before
revealed, let him be half forgiven.

If a man from one holdgetael wishs to seek a lord in another
holdgetael, let him do it with the knowledge of the ealdorman
whom he before followed in his shire. If he does it without his
knowledge, let him who treats him as his man pay 120s. as wite,
one-half to the king in the shire where he before followed and
one-half in that into which he comes. If he has done anything
wrong where he was before, let him make bot for it who has there
received him as his man; and to the king 120s. as wite.

"If any one steals so that his wife and children don't know it,
he shall pay 60 shillings as wite. But if he steals with the
knowledge of all his household, they shall all go into slavery.
A boy of ten years may be privy to a theft."

"If one who takes a thief, or holds him for the person who took
him, lets the thief go, or conceals the theft, he shall pay for
the thief according to his wer. If he is an eorldormen, he shall
forfeit his shire, unless the king is willing to be merciful to
him."

If any one steal in a church, let him pay the lawful penalty and
the wite, and let the hand be struck off with which he did it.
If he will redeem the hand, and that be allowed him, let him pay
as may belong to his wer.

If a man slanders another, the penalty is no lighter thing than
that his tongue be cut out; which must not be redeemed at any
cheaper rate than it is estimated at according to his wer.

If one deceives an unbetrothed woman and sleep with her, he must
pay for her and have her afterwards to wife. But if her father not
approve, he should pay money according to her dowry.

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